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No. I 1 "^^S" 



Fifteen Cents 




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mew JBDucation in tbe dburcb 

Series 

tTbe 3Bible as Xiteratute 

By W. FiDDIAN MOULTON, M.A. 

of St. John's College, Cambridge, Eng. 
15 cents. 

^be (3oIDen IRule in :iBudine50 

By Charles F. Dole. 
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Tcfbs^/ollowed by others. 



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BY 
CHARLES F. DOLE 



MEADVILLE, PENNA : 

FLOOD AND VINCENT 
€\>t ^t)autauqua^(Centuc|a pce^i^ 

1895 






'S$^ 










5 



Copyright, 1895, 

By FlX)OD & ViNCKKT 



The Chau/augua-Ceniury Press, MeadviUe, Pa., U. S, A. 
Electrotyped, Printed, and Bound by Flood & Vincent 



t4 
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I- 



^ 



THIS LITTLE BOOK IS DEDICATED 
TO MY GOOD FRIEND, 

BISHOP J. H. VINCENT, 

IN EARNEST SYMPATHY 

WITH HIS WISH FOR THE GROWTH 

OF A STRONGER FAITH 

IN PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

Introduction ix 

Theory and practice ; The moral universe ; 
The sway of the Golden Rule. 

I. 

The Golden Rule : What it Means . . 13 
What the rule says ; Certain puzzling ques- 
tions ; How men explain away the Golden 
Rule ; The spirit of Jesus : a new inter- 
pretation. 

II. 

Is THE Golden Rule Practicable for This 

World? 17 

What all men admit ; A significant fact ; 
Love and intelligence ; What the world says 
of unbrotherly brothers ; In the realm of 
friendship ; Among various brotherhoods ; 
The Christian Church an exception ; The 
real church ; The undoubted empire of the 
Golden Rule. 

III. 
The Golden Rule and Nature .... 25 
A law of cooperation ; What kind of min- 
isters the world wants ; What kind of teach- 
ers ; The good physician ; The great artists ; 
The kind of artisans we all want; The 



vi Contents, 

farmers ; Labor and the Golden Rule ; What 
the Golden Rule does for women's work ; 
What sort of men we want in politics ; The 
Eternal Umpire. 

IV. 

The Golden Rule and Trade . ... 32 
What men say of our present system of 
trade ; What trade is for ; Where men like 
to trade ; The lines of justice and human 
service ; The new competition ; The law of 
"supply and demand" translated; The 
Golden Rule in "the labor market "; Things 
which we must not expect ; The ills of the 
present industrial system and how their cure 
must come. 

V. 

The Golden Rule as a Venture ... 40 
A terrible "if" ; Is honesty the best pol- 
icy ? The element of venture ; A concession 
about money-making ; About bad kinds of 
business ; About high salaries ; The risk of 
unpopularity ; Nevertheless, it is safe to do 
right ; The Golden Rule and human prog- 
ress ; Faith and certainty. 

VI. 

What Makes Success 47 

Getting and giving ; The law of life ; 
Wherein Jesus succeeded ; The complete 
manhood ; The appeal to facts. 

VII. 

The Golden Rule in Organization . . 51 

The weakness of the individual ; The 



Contents. vii 

trend of modern civilization ; How com- 
binations work ; What holds labor unions 
together ; A new kind of combinations ; 
How the best will overcome the worst ; The 
binding power of friendliness ; The method 
of Jesus ; The new office of the church ; The 
church as it has been and the church as it 
must be ; A new and noble test ; What it is 
to be a Christian. 

Questions 59 



INTRODUCTION. 

It is well known that students may pur- 
sue the principles of bookkeeping or navi- 
gation and yet not know how to 
apply these principles to keeping praSfcef*^^ 
a set of books or sailing a ship. 
There is a growing suspicion that the fine 
teachings of our Sunday-schools likewise fail 
to make valid connection with practical life. 
Young people are taught to recite the Beati- 
tudes or to tell the story of Jesus, without 
being made to think what these magnificent 
ideas and this splendid example have to do 
with ordinary buying and selling, or with vot- 
ing, on occasion, against the unworthy can- 
didates of one's own party. 

This pamphlet is prepared with the pur- 
pose of showing what our Christianity has to 
do with the familiar practices of 
business. It is written in the con- J^v^sef^ 
viction of the most impressive fact 
that has ever dawned upon the mind of man. 
This fact is, that we live in a divine universe. 
It is a realm of beneficent law, extending to 



X Introduction. 

every particle of matter and to every event 
and moment of life. Every intelligent per- 
son knows that, so far as visible and material 
things go, we cannot break a law with im- 
punity. We cannot break the laws of con- 
struction with walls and bridges, and not 
come to grief There is no chance in all the 
outward world to cheat or evade, and not 
sooner or later be caught. The whole visi- 
ble world, however, is only a vast system of 
parables, illustrations, and object lessons of 
the vaster world of thought — the moral and 
spiritual world — to which men belong. 

I am persuaded that the rule of the moral 
law is no less rigorous than the law of gravi- 
tation. If justice is g^ood for any 

The sway of . . . r u -r - - , 

the Golden men it IS good for all; if it is the 
duty of any it is the duty of all; 
it is universal; it is inexorable; you cannot 
violate it. If the Golden Rule is the rule of 
a Christ, it is the rule of all men. If it holds 
good in heaven, or in any shining sphere, it 
holds good in this earth here and now. If 
physical laws, obeyed, keep our homes and 
our bodies safe, so this law only more surely 
keeps our lives safe, and constitutes the 
health of human society. As there is no 
law of things that men can afford to be ig- 



Introduction. xi 

norant of or to discredit, so they cannot 
aflford to doubt this master law of the moral 
life. This would not be a divine universe if 
the Golden Rule did not accurately apply in 
this earth where we live. The Golden Rule 
goes with our belief in the good God. It is 
idle to talk of the one if we doubt the other. 
The following pages are designed to show 
how this is so and that it cannot be other- 
wise. 



©je (Bolben Hule in Business. 
I. 

THE GOLDEN RULE: WHAT IT MEANS. 

Every one knows what the Golden Rule 
says : Whatsoever ye would that men should 
do to you, do ye even so to them. 
The Good Master quotes it from J^ie^ayl. 
the Old Testament. The Chinese 
have the same in another form: What you 
would not wish done to yourself do not to 
others. We do not know what man in the 
distant past first announced this rule. What 
we do know is that Jesus put new life and 
reality into it. He made it the law of his 
own beautiful life, and, since he uttered it, 
there has never failed from the earth a line of 
noble and generous men and women who 
have actually tried to put this rule into 
practice. 

As soon as we stop to think about the 
Golden Rule, and especially when we begin 
to apply it to the conduct of business, it does 

13 



14 The Golden Rule in Business. 

not look so plain as it seems when read by 
the minister in church. Suppose 
ziing ques- a child asks what he would wish 
to have others do unto him ? If 
he is foolish, he would like to be flattered and 
indulged ; if he is lazy, he would like to be 
excused from his task ; if he is selfish, he 
would like to be given more than his share of 
dainties. The tramp wishes gifts ; the crim- 
inal would like to be let out of jail. The 
buyer, too, wishes the lowest possible price, 
as the seller desires the highest. How much 
should you give the man who brings provis- 
ions to your door ? Are you to give what 
you would wish, if you had caught the fish, 
cut the wood, or hoed the potatoes ? It is 
evident that here, as everywhere else in this 
complicated human life, there is need not 
merely of obedient intent, but of intelligence, 
judgment, common sense, and the knowledge 
of the facts of each case. 

Moreover the Golden Rule happens to be 
found among a group of very hard and radi- 
cal sayings. The famous Sermon 

How men ex- i ■»«• n t i 

plain away the OU the MoUUt CallS the mCCK, 
Golden Rule. . ., , - 

the mourners, and the persecuted, 
blessed ; it bids men use no oaths ; it coun- 
sels non-resistance ; it commands us to love 



What it Means. 15 

our enemies. Surely, men say, Jesus cannot 
expect to be taken seriously in these teach- 
ings. They are ' ' Counsels of perfection ' ' ; 
they are heavenly ideals, in other words, im- 
possible for men who live in the real world. 
You accordingly have at last a new version of 
the difficult old rule. It is said, ' ' Do unto 
others as you would expect them to do unto 
you," wherein the beauty of the magnificent 
rule has dismally evaporated. 

The truth is that Jesus' teachings cannot 
be read, or interpreted, or applied, like a 
legislative code. The character- 

. . , . . . . . The spirit of 

IStlC of his teachmg is not in its Jesus ; a new 

form, but in its spirit. The Golden 
Rule, like the other great passages with which 
it is grouped, is the effort to express in words 
what is more than words or acts, namely, a 
new spiritual attitude or temper. Herein is 
Jesus' originality. Whatever you do, he 
teaches, treat men as friends, show yourself 
friendly, hold men as brothers, meet them on 
the street, buy and sell with them in the 
friendly temper. Jesus' idea is too large to 
be fixed in any single form of expression. It 
is summed up in the splendid figure of the 
sun, pouring its light upon the evil and the 
good. So, says Jesus, is the love of God. 



1 6 The Golden Rule in Business. 

Be ye therefore the children of God, pouring 
out your lives in loving good-will, like the 
Father. This interpretation of the Golden 
Rule relieves us of the difficulties in applying 
it, made by a narrow literalism. The ques- 
tion is no longer, what my customer, my 
workman, the beggar, or the foolish child 
strictly would wish, or what I would wish in 
his place. The larger question is. What is 
the best that I can do, in each set of circum- 
stances, as a friendly man^ who aims to give 
his life, after Jesus' fashion and spirit, to the 
welfare of his brothers? It may be pure 
friendliness that sends the thief to jail, that 
refuses the tramp, that imposes difficult tasks 
on the child, that pays the baker and fisher- 
man neither more nor less than the customary 
or market price. The law of friendly action 
— of love — ^aiming at the highest good of all, 
as it must be above the whims of the foolish 
or selfish, so it is above the mere wish of any 
individual, however kind-hearted. This will 
need fuller illustration as we go on. 



II. 

IS THE GOLDEN RULE PRACTICABLE FOR 
THIS WORLD? 

We ARE ready to show that the Golden 
Rule is no idle ''Counsel of perfection," no 
mere theory or imaginary ideal, 
but the highest actual law of ^IStf"*"^" 
human life here and now. There 
is fortunately one great realm of life, where 
no one can doubt what we are saying. It is 
the home. So far is the Golden Rule from 
being impracticable in the realm of the honie, 
that nothing else will serve to hold a home 
together. Where selfishness is, where self- 
indulgence pushes to the front, where there 
is scrambling and quarreling, in that hour or 
day when the Golden Rule lapses, the home 
is spoiled. The home begins as soon as a 
single life in the family group gives itself 
in love for the welfare of the others. The 
home is a success, a joy to enter, and a place 
of rest to stay in, where all the members down 
to the young children breathe the atmosphere 
of thoughtful helpfulness. Better the tiniest 

17 



1 8 The Golden Rule in Business. 

house, where by the natural conditions of 
daily service the law of love has constant ex- 
ercise, than the most sumptuous mansion, 
whose inmates, being waited upon by a 
retinue of servants, forget the cardinal idea of 
the home. It is ' * not to be ministered unto 
but to minister." For the love which 
cements the family together grows strong, not 
by getting much, but by giving and doing, in 
the spirit of Him who said, * * It is more blessed 
[that is, happy] to give than to receive." 

We have also, in the plain facts of the 
home life,- ready answer to the question. 

What will become of the individ- 
A^significant ual if he ''cstccms others better 

than himself"? Who will take 
care of him if he does not look out for him- 
self? The beautiful fact is, as a rule, that 
whoever does most for the common good of 
the home, whoever gives it most hearty serv- 
ice, is the one who gets most out of 
its life and enjoys it best. Whoever gives 
most love and demands the least in return 
is apt to be precisely the one whom every 
one loves most. In these high things the 
rule of getting seems to be, not to try to get 
at all. We shall have occasion later to trace 
this more fully. 



Is the Golden Rule Practicable? 19 

I have to protest here in passing against a 
common proverb that ''love is blind." It 
does often seem blind. There 
are sweet and loving women who hueiulence. 
make themselves slaves to the 
selfishness of their husbands. There are sis- 
ters who give up their chance of education 
and happiness, and contrive to sacrifice other 
rights besides, in an unthinking sense of 
duty to their home. The fact is, that true 
love is intelligent. It sees the ends toward 
which it moves. Toward the real and larger 
welfare of its object it gives itself lavishly, 
but it has no right to give itself merely to 
minister to the ease, the selfishness, the com- 
placency of another. This would be to harm 
the other. If true love is to keep the 
Golden Rule, it is not love to help our best 
friends to break the Golden Rule, and so to 
lose the prizes of life. 

I lay stress upon the' working of the Golden 
Rule in the home, because here is a central 
point of departure from which to 
reach all the regions of human ^^fd lays of 
life. Thus the brothers of a fam- S^otSr^!'^"^ 
ily grow up and go into business. 
Having treated one another as brothers, and 
having found the Golden Rule to work as 



20 The Golden Rule in Business. 

long as they lived under the same roof, will 
they now change all this and take up the 
weapons of suspicion and unfriendliness 
toward one another ? On the contrary, the 
whole world pronounces against brothers who 
are mean enough to hurt each other in busi- 
ness. The man who gets an advantage in 
trade to the loss of his own brother had bet- 
ter not let it be known ' * on the street. ' ' 

The Golden Rule also marches out of the 
home and covers the realms of our friend- 
ships. What else does friendship 
iffrilnSlSi). mean than that friends treat each 
other after the fashion of brothers 
and sisters? The Golden Rule cements 
friendship as it binds the home. ^ Perhaps 
you think that you can be a friend in social 
relations, but you need not be a friend in a 
bargain. The ordinary judgment of the 
world then proclaims you to be no true friend 
at all. Who will value your friendship for a 
moment, after you have tried to get the bet- 
ter of him in a trade ? You are absolutely 
bound to observe the Golden Rule, at least 
toward your friends, if you want to keep 
them. You can no more afford to push and 
crowd them in business than you can 
venture to push and crowd them to the 



Is the Golden Rule Practicable? 21 

wall at a social party. See then at once how 
the Golden Rule extends its sway. 

The bond of friendship also takes up a 
great many almost superficial and conven- 
tional relations among men and 

rj.. 1 Among 

women. There are large num- various 

, 1 t 1 i brotherhoods. 

bers of people who belong to 
lodges, orders, and brotherhoods. If a man 
is going to cheat or play a sharp trick in 
business, I suspect that he had better not 
touch the members of his own lodge of 
Masons or Odd Fellows. The Golden Rule 
will confront him some day in his lodge room 
with its eternal rebuke of hypocrisy. I am 
told that even on the Stock Exchange an 
irresistible code of honor compels the man 
who might be cruel and crafty in his dealings 
with * ' the lambs ' ' outside, to be true and 
even generous toward his ''brothers" of the 
Exchange. 

We come now to a singular anomaly, which 
has puzzled thousands of plain people and 
made endless scandal. It is the 

f. ,. - - .-11 The Christian 

comparative failure of the Golden church ,- an 

T^ 1 - ,, ^. . . exception. 

Rule among fellow Christians. 
You will hear men of large experience fre- 
quently say that they have found thorough- 
going friendship elsewhere, perhaps among 



22 The Golden Rule in Business. 

the members of their lodge, or in individu- 
als who made no profession to belong to any- 
church, while they have repeatedly suffered 
unfriendly treatment from their brother 
church members. The idea of Jesus about 
these things is as plain as day. You will 
know his friends, so he invariably teaches, 
by the fact that they love one another — that 
is, keep the Golden Rule. So far as he 
meant to establish a church, it was evidently to 
be the closest and the least conventional kind 
of brotherhood. It is hard enough to 
imagine that Jesus would ever have accepted 
as one of his friends — that is, as a Christian 
— a person who broke the Golden Rule 
toward outsiders, toward heathen, toward 
heretical Samaritans, much less who made 
his living by breaking it. But it is quite im- 
possible to think of Jesus as admitting those 
to be Christians at all who break the Golden 
Rule toward their fellow Christians. * *What !' ' 
we hear him say, * ' do you call yourselves by 
my name and yet dare to injure or cheat my 
friends, your own brothers and sisters ? You 
have missed then the one idea for which I 
gave my life." 

The anomaly of which I speak, however, 
is one of the very exceptions which at last 



Is the Golden Rule Practicable? 23 

** proves the rule." In so far as a church 
at any time contains genuine per- 
sons, whenever there has been a ^^^^^} 
true revival of the good life — 
among the Moravians, among the Quakers — 
when Wesley, Channing, General Booth, 
Phillips Brooks have preached the veritable 
gospel — you mark the tide of the new life 
absolutely by the working of the Golden 
Rule. You will find at every such point an 
actual enlargement of the real church of 
Christ. You find at least individuals who, 
having caught Jesus' idea of a life of friendly 
service, are honestly conducting their busi- 
ness on the beautiful lines of the Golden 
Rule. I maintain that this number is already 
considerable. The disappointment that we 
feel about the church is, that the spirit of the 
Golden Rule, which splendidly characterizes 
individual members, has not yet spread so as 
definitely to control the whole body. 

You may liken the region of business, and 
in many respects you must liken the church 
also, to a land of hills and plains, 

. . . The undoubted 

Upon which the sun, just rismg, empire of the 

. Golden Rule. 

has already begun to shme mto 

the windows of the houses on the hilltops. 

Wherever brothers and kindly kinsfolk dwell, 



24 The Golden Rule in Business, 

wherever friends live, wherever friendship, 
even in its semblance, is organized into so- 
cieties and fellowships, wherever also the 
church idea is vital, the Golden Rule already 
is seen in its beneficent operation. It begins 
to look now as though those ought to be 
obliged to prove their case who deny that the 
Golden Rule is practicable. 



III. 

THE GOLDEN RULE AND NATURE. 

It is often hastily assumed that nature is 
wholly against the Golden Rule. Selfishness, 
it is said, drives the wheels of the 
world. This is to leave out of ^pi^rItiom°" 
sight an immense and impressive 
series of facts. It would be truer to say that 
the world is a vast parable of some deep law 
of cooperation. You see it at work in every 
crystal, you see it in the frost-work of your 
window-pane. You see it binding birds to- 
gether in flocks, cattle in herds, bees in hives. 
You see it in its culmination in man. There 
is that, even in his animal nature, which binds 
him in social relations with his fellows. His 
better nature finds abiding contentment no- 
where more than in friendly service. Jesus 
was the forerunner of a long line of those who 
have not only lived the good life, but have 
lived it with serene gladness. 

I wish to show how, in various important 
respects in the realm of business, the deeper 

25 



26 The Golden Rule in Business. 

nature marches to support the Golden Rule. 
We will boldly begin with the profession of 
the minister, because I believe, 

What kind of . i • . , 

ministers the SO far from its bcmg^ exceptional, 

world wants. . . . ^ ^ , 

It IS typical of the trades and 
professions. He alone is truly a minister who 
stands to give the utmost possible service to 
his fellows. I maintain that the world is ex- 
tremely appreciative of this kind of ministry. 
Why was the land full of praise for Dr. Park- 
hurst, or a little before for Dr. Brooks, ex- 
cept that men desire nothing so much as to 
see the working of the spirit of the Golden 
Rule? 

We pass, with the sense of scarcely a shade 
of difference of purpose, into the great de- 
partment of education. You are 
The teachers, about to choose a tcachcr for your 
kindergarten, a master for your 
high school, a president for your college. 
What kind of a candidate will you choose ? 
Surely not any selfish or mercenary person. 
Your teachers, the educators of your chil- 
dren, must steer their lives by the Golden 
Rule. Dr. Arnold, of Rugby, or President 
Mark Hopkins, is the type of the man whom 
the world puts in the front rank among 
teachers. 



The Golden Rule and Nature. 27 

What shall we say now of the physicians 
whom we delight to honor ? We want science, 
skill, experience in our physician, 
but we want something more. We physSfan. 
are afraid of a selfish and sordid 
man in the sick room. We want humanity, 
friendliness, a generous heart. In the best 
sense of the word, we want our physician to 
be a religious man, that is, a man of faith, 
hope, love. No one doubts that here is the 
ideal of the good physician. 

Let us turn to the authors, the artists, 
the musicians, and see if the Golden Rule 
will hurt or help their art. I hold 
that art is truth, and the Golden J^j^sS^^^ 
Rule marches with truth. Art is 
beauty and the Golden Rule works toward the 
highest beauty. The great writers and poets 
have been eloquent in proportion as their 
hearts have been warm with humanity. Dante, 
Shakspeare, Milton, Browning, our own 
Lowell, Longfellow, and Whittier, have sung 
the praise of devotion and love. The great 
artists, Michael Angelo or Millet, have not 
dared, for cheap praise or for hire, to wrong 
the truth of their art. The great composers 
like Bach and Beethoven have put the human 
soul into their music. I do not claim that all 



28 The Golden Rule in Business. 

these men have been unselfish, but I claim 
that their best strength comes from their truth, 
their sincerity, their steadfastness, their sym- 
pathies. The masters never needed to be 
selfish, to push, or to scramble in order to 
win their renown. 

Let us descend nearer to the great average 

life of mankind and see whether the Golden 

Rule will hurt or help a mechanic, 

The kind of , . . ^ . _,_' 

artisans a machmist, an engmeer. We 

we all want. i t i 11 

are told that the large employers 
cannot obtain enough skilled and trustworthy 
men. Other things being equal, the men 
who work by the standard of the Golden 
Rule actually command the highest wages in 
the market. Every one wants to be served 
by such men. 

The same thing obviously holds good of 
the multitude of farmers. Here is a farmer 

who aims to do the least possible 
The farmers, for his land, for his cattle and 

horses, for his neighbors, for his 
customers, and he wishes to get the most that 
he can for himself. Alongside of him is the 
man who gives honest and friendly measure 
to every one, who tends his land and loves 
his creatures. Which farmer, other things 
being equal, will succeed? The practice 



The Golden Rule and Nature. 29 

of the Golden Rule will work every time. 
Come now to the great army of labor, and 
see whether the Golden Rule, or selfishness 
stands in the way of the pros- 

. Labor and 

perity of the workers. Is it ever the Golden 

^ . . . - . , Rule. 

agamst the interests of the work- 
ingman, that he gives such faithful and 
friendly service as he would wish to have an- 
other render him ? Does any one imagine, 
if the whole force of a factory were to act 
like Christians — in other words, were to do 
their work like true and brotherly men — that 
they would lose in wages, appreciation, con- 
tentment, happiness, or anything else ? 

About the great mass of women's work we 
are perfectly sure. The larger part of it is 
done in households where, as we 
have seen, the essential condition ooMen ifuie 
of any degree of comfort is in women'swork. 
the good temper of the inmates 
of the home. For all domestic situations 
there do not begin to be willing, cheerful, 
and friendly women to meet the demand. In 
other words, there is not a worker any- 
where with whom the adoption of the Golden 
Rule does not signify a distinct, and often a 
very large, increase of value. The Golden 
Rule is founded in nature. It opens the 



3© The Golden Rule in Business. 

flood-gates of new power, insight, and life. 

We will make bold now to advance larger 

claims for the working of the Golden Rule. 

We hold that it will work in that 

men we want most difficult department of human 

in politics. . tTr i 

life, politics. We have here con- 
spicuous examples. Why does Washington 
stand at the head of our list of illustrious 
men ? It is because he used his high place 
for the good of the people. In the Christian 
sense of the word, he was a great minister. 
Lincoln and Garfield were great for the same 
reason. Everywhere the country cries out 
for such men as these. Only these have any 
worthy memorial. Small and selfish men are 
blind not to see these things. What Jesus 
said begins already to be true, namely, that 
the meek — that is, those who do not seek 
their own ends, office, or emolument — "shall 
inherit the earth. ' ' Yes, shall hold the of- 
fices and wield the power ! For thus the 
facts prophesy. 

It is with these human relations as it is 
with boys in their games. It may be that 

the boys who cheat and break the 
VmpiV?^"^^ rules of the game seem for a 

while to succeed. But the um- 
pires are watching, and if there were no um- 



The Golden Rule and Nature. 31 

pires, the boys themselves have no real 
respect except for skill and fair play. So 
the Eternal Umpire presides over human 
affairs; no evil thing can prosper; no honest 
effort is unseen or lost. 



IV. 

THE GOLDEN RULE AND TRADE. 

Can we take one farther step and claim 
that the Golden Rule will work in the mer- 
cantile world? There are those 
^theprTsInt^ who Say that the ruling concep- 
tSde? °^ tions of trade are foreign to the 
genius of Christianity, or even of 
human brotherhood. Trade proceeds by 
competition. It buys in the cheapest market 
and sells in the dearest. It stands between 
the producer and consumer, and gets what 
it can out of each. As long as trade is a 
species of struggle, as long as the present 
mercantile and industrial system holds, men 
say, you cannot buy and sell by the Golden 
Rule. You must first alter the system of the 
world. If these things are so, no true and 
friendly man can remain in mercantile busi- 
ness. I cannot be bidden to do false or 
hurtful acts to my neighbors. I cannot send 
my sons to learn a business in which they 
must cheat and take mean advantage. Surely 

32 



The Golden Rule and Trade, 33 

there are other places of work to be found 
in the great world, where we may live with- 
out tripping up and crowding to the wall our 
weaker brothers, or scrambling disgracefully 
to get the highest seats at the table. 

Let us first, however, see if the present 
mercantile system itself is wrong, or is it pos- 
sible that the wrong is in the men 
who manage it ? It is certain that g^^^n ^""^^^ 
a large part of all trade must run 
close to the lines of the Golden Rule. I 
mean that trade, upon the whole, is for the 
one net object of human service. It is for 
the good of all of us that merchants bring 
flour from Dakota and rice from the sea- 
islands. It is for good, and not mischief, 
that they fill their stores with costly mer- 
chandise. If I deal with them, it is because, 
in at least nine cases out of ten, I am meas- 
urably satisfied with my bargain. 

Moreover — a remarkable fact — in nearly 
every branch of trade I know certain dealers 
in whose friendly service I have 
solid confidence. In every city uke^t^tSSe. 
there are establishments upon the 
good faith of which one can rely. When- 
ever a business house has a generous reputa- 
tion people like to go there to trade. Can it 



34 I'h^ Golden Rule in Business, 

be unprofitable to the merchant that he makes 
his neighbors trust, respect, and love him? 
The Golden Rule tends to this precise end. 
On the contrary, he who violates the Golden 
Rule in his dealings rouses our suspicions, 
and either repels men's trade or sets them at 
work " to be even ' ' with him. 

My point here is that the great bulk of 

mercantile transactions has to be reasonably 

near the lines of justice and of 

The lines of human scrvicc. The margin of 

justice and hu- . 

man service, dishonesty IS somewhat narrow 
and dangerous. The Golden Rule, 
aiming at the utmost human welfare, is so 
deep in nature that it commands a sort of 
conformity, long before men have fairly caught 
its spirit. It is possible, if all the men in 
New York to-morrow adopted the Golden 
Rule that the figures of prices, values, and 
profits might not have to undergo very great 
change. It is likely that the services of few 
of us are worth to the world much more than 
we get. The adoption of the Golden Rule 
would lessen great sources of waste ; it would 
increase the grand product out of which we 
all live ; it would correct certain sad abuses 
and injustices ; but its chief gain would be on 
the side of our humanity, in the quickened 



The Golden Rule and Trade. 35 

sense of our brotherhood, lifting the ordinary- 
relations of trade to the same level with the 
ministrations of the teacher, the physician, 
the poet and artist, the friend and the patriot. 
What shall we say of this terrible old brute 
doctrine of competition? Is trade possible 
without it ? I propose to translate 
this doctrine into higher terms. Competition. 
The competition which aggrieves 
us is that which seeks its gain at another's 
loss. You have this at its extreme in all 
kinds of gambling, whether in the lottery or 
in the stock and produce exchanges. You 
have it in the extortions of the ordinary pawn- 
shop. In this kind of competition the weight 
of the effort is to get. But suppose the 
emphasis is changed, and the effort is to give, 
to accomplish a benefit, to do a service ? Sup- 
pose that the aim in the school-room is not a 
prize, which only one can have, but the aim 
is the mark of excellence, which all may win 
if they please ? What if the farmer tries for 
the largest product and highest quality of 
fruit, the manufacturer aims at turning out 
goods of standard perfection, the carpenter 
takes honest delight in the thoroughness of 
his workmanship, the merchant exerts him- 
self to treat his customers handsomely ? Here 



36 The Golden Rule in Business. 

is no longer a reckless and brutal struggle to 
crowd others to the wall. It is a friendly- 
emulation, worthy of men. Its success is not 
at others' loss, but for the enrichment of all. 
This is precisely the application of the Golden 
Rule to trade as we have seen it applied in 
noble homes. We are surely very unfortu- 
nate in our business acquaintances if we have 
not actually seen those who thus successfully 
translated the competitive struggle into the 
highest human terms of honest and friendly 
service. 

I am reminded of that stern law of trade, to 
* * buy in the cheapest market and to sell in the 
dearest. ' * Can this be translated 
" sup^S; and into the terms of the Golden Rule ? 
fransiafed. ^ct US scc if there is anything in- 
trinsically selfish in this ' ' law of 
supply and demand." Men are now mostly 
selfish in using this law ; let us show them 
how to use it with intelligent humanity. 
Where is the cheapest market for corn or 
cotton ? It is where the supply is largest, and 
where presumably the farmer wants to ex- 
change his product for money. And where 
is the dearest market? It is in the city or at 
the factory, where he will confer a favor who 
provides a supply. The Golden Rule surely 



The Golden Rule and Trade. 37 

does not forbid a good man from bringing 
the supply to meet the need. What the 
Golden Rule requires is the attitude of a 
friend, who gives cheerfully as much as he 
can afford. The bargain that brings the 
needs of the buyer and seller together must 
aim to benefit both parties. The Golden 
Rule might not alter the terms of the bargain, 
but it would make men's eyes thoughtful to 
see the other's side in the bargain. Selfish 
men in a bargain are each suspiciously seek- 
ing to get advantage away from the other ; 
friendly men seek to benefit each other. In 
each case the somewhat narrow margin, within 
which they adjust their prices, is the same. 
Thus when a farmer brings potatoes into the 
city, the buyer can hardly afford to give sixty 
cents a bushel. The farmer can hardly afford 
to sell for fifty cents. They agree upon fifty- 
five cents. If they are selfish men, they part, 
each grudging the other his advantage. If 
they are friendly men, they are happy in hav- 
ing shared a mutual benefit. 

Yes, some one replies, but the present in- 
dustrial system puts human labor 

1 t • A iTT-ii 1 The Golden 

under this stern law. Will the Rule in "the 

>r^ 1 1 T^ 1 1 1 11 • labor market." 

Golden Rule let us buy labor in 

the cheapest market ? Where is the cheapest 



38 The Golden Rule in Business. 

labor market ? It is where unfortunate men 
are unemployed. There can be no wrong 
in employing them. The wrong is in being 
blind to their humanity. The wrong is in 
taking advantage of their necessity. 

The Golden Rule is often expected to work 

a physical miracle, and make something out 

of nothing. If a thousand men, 

Things which . . ^ 

we must not workmg grudgmgly, only pro- 
duce a thousand dollars' worth in 
a day, the Golden Rule cannot find means 
for the most generous employer to pay them 
each a dollar and a half. In other words, 
the Golden Rule cannot give a man more 
than the value of what he really produces. 

It must be admitted, nevertheless, that 
great wrongs are wrought under the present 
industrial system. It is easy to 
JSent in^duJ- paint them in lurid colors. There 
and how their ^rc glaring inequalities. There are 
come™"^' those whosc immense luxuries, 
drawn from unjust monopolies, 
are borne at the common expense. I have 
tried to suggest that, deep down beneath the 
present system, below men's ordinary con- 
sciousness, the principle of the Golden Rule 
founded in nature is slowly at work, urging 
men into closer cooperation and bringing 



The Golden Rule and Trade, 39 

hurtful methods to naught. The cure for 
the evils that distress us is certainly not in 
selfishness, standing aloof in envy and anger, 
or smashing the costly and delicate machinery 
of the world's industry. The cure is not in 
shirking or scamping one's work and cutting 
at the great aggregate product. The cure is 
not in snatching from the gains of others, or 
trying to live out of the public purse. The 
only cure is in owning the Golden Rule, even 
while others disown it, and in helping to 
make it work. As sure as this is God's 
world, it will and must work. As sure as 
we are God's children, we shall have no 
peace or satisfaction till we make it work. 
And if, as some think, a better system of 
human society is coming, it can only come 
as the expression of the will of a people 
whose hearts have been possessed with the 
spirit of the Golden Rule. Convert men 
to-day to live by this rule and labor troubles 
will cease, strikes will no more be heard of, 
exacting monopolies will disappear, the inter- 
est rate of money, rents, and taxes will de- 
cline, unused land will be opened to use, the 
aggregate product of all good things will be 
enlarged, and every one will have an ampler 
share, with leisure enough to enjoy it. 



V. 

THE GOLDEN RULE AS A VENTURE. 

Perhaps no one will be so skeptical as to 
deny the conclusion of the last chapter. Yes, 

men say, the Golden Rule will 
«jf?r"^^® work if every one will keep it. 

It will work under favorable con- 
ditions, as, for instance, in dealings with our 
friends. The trouble is that the world is full 
of people who do not pretend to keep the 
Golden Rule, and against whose greed and 
selfishness we have to stand on guard. 

I am overwhelmed at once with a chorus 
of objections and excuses. The merchant 

tells me frankly that he must 
best'poiky?^ sometimes break the Golden 

Rule, like other merchants, or he 
will starve. The manufacturer says that he 
cannot keep the Golden Rule while other 
manufacturers break it. If his workmen try 
to beat him out of his profits, he must in 
self-defense beat down their wages. There 
are men who cheat in their work. The mas- 

40 



The Golden Rule as a Venture. 41 

ter must fight them, if not with cheating, at 
least with fines, suspicions, espionage. The 
brutal spirit voices itself in the professions. 
We must get a living, men say, by doing as 
others do. We must mix a grain of humbug 
in our medicines, we must try to make the 
worse appear the better reason. You must 
keep on the side of your bread and butter, 
says the subtle tempter to the minister. You 
owe your first duty in this rude world to 
your family. Even kindly women are caught 
by the popular voice. It is no use, they say, 
to be generous to the girls in the kitchen. 
They do not thank us for our kindnesses. 
And the cooks and the maids answer backj 
We never get any thanks for keeping the 
Golden Rule. What a mercenary world it 
still is, when kind women grudge their kind- 
ness, unless they are paid in thanks ! 

In the face of these eager complaints I am 
bound to make certain concessions. I do 
not pretend that thorough work- 
manship, though cheapest and of^JentSI?^ 
best in the end, Is not somewhat 
costly at the start. Perhaps only the skilled 
engineer sees at first why so much work must 
be sunk out of sight for the foundations of 
the bridge. The engineer cannot always 



42 The Golden Rule in Business. 

foresee in the new work exactly how costly 
it may prove, or what unexpected difficulties 
may need to be overcome. This fact of our 
human short-sightedness about great or new 
undertakings makes what we call the element 
of venture. It is a very interesting element, 
which gives zest to enterprise and color to 
hope. I must concede that the way of the 
Golden Rule, especially for one who begins 
to walk in it, holds this brave element of a 
venture. There are difficulties, there will be 
expense, there will be discouragements. I 
liken Jesus, with his clear sight of the laws 
of the good life, to the skilled engineer. 

I am inclined to concede at once that, if 

success is in making money, the man who 

keeps the Golden Rule will rarely 

A concession ■' 

about money- make or keep so much money as 

making. * . •' 

that more cautious or less gener- 
ous man, who only does ''as the others do." 
We will grant that few millionaire fortunes 
can be made by the men of the Golden Rule. 
We will concede, also, that there may be 

occasions where the Golden Rule 

About bad 

kinds of would drive a man out of his 

business. 

present busmess, as Zacchaeus 
was probably driven out of his publican's 
office. What can a true man do, if he dis- 



The Golden Rule as a Venture. 43 

covers that his business is of no real use to 
human society ? And there are such kinds 
of business ! What can a true man do, if 
the customs of his trade command him to 
hush his conscience, or to harden his heart, 
as the slave trade did, as the liquor trade 
largely does now? What can he do, if the 
kind of competition in which he is involved 
urges him to use the methods of the sweat- 
shop against his working people? What can 
he do, if he wakes up to find himself one of 
the tools of a monstrous monopoly ? 

The Golden Rule will also sometimes dic- 
tate a reduction of salary or income. It 
seems obvious, if the wages of 
employees in a mill must be cut ^^aries!*^^ 
down, that the higher officers 
ought cheerfully to accept a like reduction of 
their salaries and the stockholders to receive 
a smaller dividend. In hard times the min- 
ister must willingly suffer losses with his 
people. 

It is evident that thorough obedience 
to the Golden Rule will not always be 
popular. The rule will require 
us to do more than others do, to unpopSarity. 
move in advance of the great 
body of men in our trade or profession. The 



44 "^^i^ Golden Rule in Business. 

weapons of strife and suspicion are largely in 
vogue. The manufacturer who ventures to 
trust the friendly methods of the Golden 
Rule may be called a ' * crank. ' ' The work- 
man who tries to treat his employer as he 
would wish to be treated will risk unpopu- 
larity among his mates. We may have con- 
fidence that the Golden Rule will work 
eventual prosperity, as the men who began 
the strife against slavery trusted in the tri- 
umph of liberty. But the world is still shy 
of changing its barbarous habits, and we who 
believe in the Golden Rule must make up 
our minds, like all pioneers, to be for a while 
in the minority. The Great Engineer' s plan 
will doubtless be cheapest and best, but it is 
only the few at first who willingly face his 
careful figures. Did he ever promise that 
those who follow him should suffer no disap- 
pointment? 

We come to the practical question which 

the timid will always be asking: Shall we be 

, , sure of a living if we take this 

Nevertheless, . 

it is safe to magnificent venture? Will not 

do right. * 

our families suffer? Can we edu- 
cate our children on the income that the 
Golden Rule will leave us? It is evident 
that from the time of Jesus down to our own 



The Golden Rule as a Venture. 45 

Civil War, the way of the Golden Rule has 
often led to poverty, imprisonment, and 
death. Nevertheless, the sufferings of the 
martyrs have already purchased such an ad- 
vance in humanity that no one who reads 
these words is likely really to starve for his 
devotion to duty ! Neither do I believe that 
the children of those who prefer to remain 
poor rather than to do unrighteous things, 
will suffer in all that makes true education, 
in comparison with the children of him who 
has made his money by craft, the wrecking 
of railroads, the bribing of legislators. As I 
shall presently show, education is wrong 
that makes children think that the values of 
life are in eating and drinking, or lets them 
forget the eternal laws that bind society. 

I might go farther and urge again, what I 
have shown in a previous chapter, that in 
many practical directions ' ' sfodli- 

\, , . . , Theadvan- 

ness — that is, righteousness, tage of doing 

truth, friendliness — has ** promise 

of the life that now is." All things go to 

show that human progress moves in this 

direction. 

I do not care, however, to prove in ad- 
vance that the Golden Rule will always work 
to one's immediate material advantage. The 



46 The Golden Rule in Business. 

great new investments of each age emerge 
out of a cloud of some uncer- 
cStainty'? taiuty. All the men and women 
who have ever done memorable 
things, or lived the noble lives whose mem- 
ories we are proud to inherit, have taken 
ventures for truth, justice, liberty, love, 
humanity. Our religion itself is such a 
glorious venture. You can make no demon- 
stration of its truth in advance that will sat- 
isfy a coward or an egotist. It rests, indeed, 
on great and ever- increasingly obvious facts 
of the moral universe. To the trained en- 
gineer's eye its conclusions are irresistible. 
But to each individual the entrance upon it 
remains an act of faith. To do merely what 
is safe, what pays, what gives immediate sat- 
isfaction, requires no faith nor courage, nor 
even intelligence. To do the new and higher 
thing, the lines of which run into the infinite 
distance, is ever the call of religion. Faith 
predicts that it will be well, but the man has 
to wait to see. This is the condition of his 
finiteness. It is only at his highest moments, 
bought by obedience to the heavenly visions, 
that he catches glimpses of the eternal cer- 
titudes. 



VI. 

WHAT MAKES SUCCESS. 

I HASTEN to clear up a certain doubtful 
ground. The doubt is as to what makes human 
success. It is commonly assumed 
that success is measured by what Jviigf ^^^ 
one gets. It is in amassing means, 
money, goods. It is in luxurious living ; it 
is in winning position and office ; it is in be- 
ing indulged, served, praised. It is no won- 
der that children think so. We have seen 
that it is not so in the home. The grown 
man soon finds that all kinds of success in 
getting fail to bring satisfaction. The larger 
the nature or size of the personality the 
more signal the man's failure. It is here that 
Jesus' radical teaching proves to be truth, 
not for another world, but for this world. 
Jesus never says that getting is of no use, but 
he lays the emphasis on the other and neg- 
lected side of life. The law of the individual 
life, says he, is to give rather than to get. 
The business of the vein or the artery is to 

47 



48 The Golden Rule in Business. 

pour the blood through, to distribute nour- 
ishment for the body. Thus the artery gets 
its own growth ; the more it gives the more 
it shall have. In short, the law of its getting 
is to give. So with each individual man. 
Does he wish to be large, rich, full ? Let him 
not then seek for himself to be ministered 
unto, but let him become the largest possible 
minister to the life of mankind. The world 
does not so much exist for him as he exists 
for the world. Let him do his best for the 
world, and let him not doubt that the Lord 
of the world will thus do the best for him. 

It is interesting to observe that the bodily 
health responds at once to this deeper moral 

condition. There is nothing so 
The law of rasping to the health as all kinds 

of selfish anxiety. Jealousy, envy, 
suspicion, as well as self-indulgence, sap the 
springs of life and set ajar the nervous bal- 
ance. It is not work that hurts, so much as 
the frustration of work that has no worthy 
aim. This waste of life, this nervous strain 
is saved, when we accept the law that makes 
us simply ministers of the great Good- Will." 
We are now under orders of conscience, of 
truth, of love. We hold all that we possess 
in trust. We have only to do what the 



Wkat Makes Success. 49 

Good-Will bids. Further care we have none. 
Friction and worriment are reduced to a 
minimum. Our lives have become parallel 
with the motion of the life forces of the uni- 
verse. 

Jesus' own life was the exemplification of 
this principle. His life was large, rich, full. 
Who saw more of the beauty of 
this world? Who rejoiced more ^cceeled.^'"' 
in the love of his friends ? Who 
had a more joyous hope to buoy up his 
heart, that all would be well ? Who in his 
time was better educated than this carpen- 
ter's son, who saw the deeper, though quite 
simple, meanings of existence ? If the Golden 
Rule worked his death a little earlier than 
Herod's or Pilate's, it first gave him the 
sweetest enjoyment of life that man had ever 
possessed. 

The truth is, that real life is in the activity 
of every part and function that makes the 
whole man. It is as though a 
stream of divine health were cours- manhoS*^^'^ 
ing through one ; the nerves 
tingle with zest ; the mind is quick ; the 
heart is warm ; faith treads its brave ventures 
with firm foot. The man is at his full height 
when, like Jesus, body and mind give them- 



50 The Golden Rule in Business. 

selves with free abandon to carry the mes- 
sages and do the service of love. 

We are already accumulating a memorable 
array of instances to show that Jesus' idea of 

success is simply the normal rule, 
The appeal to to which all men who want real 

life must conform. Who that has 
heard of General Armstrong's work for the 
blacks at Hampton, or Mr. Brace's work for 
the neglected children of New York, can 
doubt that the most absolute consecration to 
the spirit of the Golden Rule brought these 
men the highest possible joy. Others might 
have deemed their lives a sacrifice upon the 
altar of a stern duty. They would have re- 
plied that such persons did not know what 
life was. We are poor if we do not number 
among our friends those who have made 
similar trial of the new life, to which the 
Golden Rule is the portal. If in any real 
sense this is God's world and we are his chil- 
dren, the Golden Rule is the only conceivable 
way through which the divine life can flow 
into the soul. Break the rule and you check 
the flow of the life. Surely, then, it is false 
education that teaches however many other 
things, but fails to teach the eternal rule, 
whereby life is renewed and made to grow rich. 



VII. 

THE GOLDEN RULE IN ORGANIZATION. 

I HAVE SO far assumed that it was only- 
necessary to persuade individuals to trust 
Jesus' teaching, and like him to 
accept the Golden Rule as the oftheindi- 

, --.,.- -iiT'i T vidual. 

law of their life. Neither can I 
doubt that it is with the individual in every 
case that our rule must first win its way. But 
the complicated conditions of our modern 
life offer many grave difficulties. Not only 
the individual workman, but the employer 
also is often caught in the coil of a vast in- 
dustrial system, from which he does not know 
how to escape. What can he do alone, 
though with the attitude of the Golden Rule, 
in the face of the pitiless competition of the 
unscrupulous, or of a labor market crowded 
with emigrants, scrambling for the lowest 
American wages ? 

Moreover, the whole tendency of civiliza- 
tion is toward closer and vaster forms of com- 
bination. We have already traced a law, that 

51 



52 The Golden Rule in Business. 

the individual gets the most and best for 
himself, as he learns to e^ive the 

The trend of , ^ .. . 

modern civiii- utmost to Others. Cooperation 
is the mode by which the activity 
of all is brought to effectiveness. The growth 
in combination is really a growth in humanity. 
But the older barbarous ideas still largely sur- 
vive. The great combinations are organized 
to fight, and not yet fairly to serve, or they 
serve by the working of the deeper law, in 
spite of the selfish purpose of the men who 
direct them. The employers combine in 
self-defense and establish corporations and 
trusts. Sometimes they seem to unite out of 
sheer selfishness. The workingmen of dif- 
ferent trades combine likewise into unions, 
and even try to federate their unions together 
and to mass all the labor of a nation into an 
industrial army. They propose to keep 
even with the capitalist and to wrest from him 
a fairer share of the joint product. They 
propose to legislate against his legislation and 
to alter the laws. Some promise to go fur- 
ther and to inaugurate a new system of 
society. 

There does not seem to be much of the 
Golden Rule in these great combinations. 
There is much evident bitterness. It is strife 



The Golden Rule in Organization, 53 

of the selfish against the selfish. Neverthe- 
less, beneath the surface a new 
principle slowly makes headway. J^tionTwork. 
Selfishness, like injustice, is a dis- 
integrating force. It has to unload somewhat 
of its weight in order to enter into any com- 
bination. At least within its own group or 
union it must keep the form of the Golden 
Rule or go down. Even in the most danger- 
ous combination of greedy capital, there is 
deference to the growing public opinion of 
the nation and a fear of the laws through 
which this public opinion will surely shatter 
any conspiracy of the few against the good 
of the many. 

Especially in the labor unions the Golden 
Rule binds the members among themselves 
with an ever-deepeniner hold. 

, 1- & ^ What holds 

Men and women are seen sacri- labor unions 
ficing their immediate and per- 
sonal interests, losing wages and risking 
starvation, for what they deem the good of 
their brotherhood. Whether they are always 
wise or not, the spirit is often precisely the 
same as that which gave the early Christian 
Church its headway in the teeth of persecu- 
tion. 

There is, however, a class of combinations 



54 ^he Golden Rule i7i Business. 

to-day such as the world never before saw which 
are almost purely the outgrowth of 
«Sii?o„s5 the Golden Rule. They are the 
various friendly, philanthropic, 
educational, patriotic, humane, and missionary 
organizations. Individuals possessed with 
the purpose of the Golden Rule join hands 
simply to give of their labor or their means 
to cure human evils and relieve needs. Thus 
the various temperance societies stand for the 
desire of a multitude of people to forego per- 
sonal indulgence for the sake of the greater 
good. The movements for purer govern- 
ment, such as the effort for civil service re- 
form, represent the will of individuals like 
the distinguished editor, George William 
Curtis, to devote themselves to public service. 
We have the clue to understand how the 
spirit of the Golden Rule is likely to work 

relief from the great and threaten- 
How the good . • 1 1/- 1 
will overcome mg" eiiorts oi orpfauized seliisn- 

thebad. ,,r i ^ r 

ness. We do not need first to 
convert all men to the principle of the Golden 
Rule. We shall meet bad organizations with 
better and stronger ones. In some instances 
we shall capture the old organizations with 
the new temper. The men of the Golden 
Rule in a mercantile corporation will make 



The Golden Rule in Organization. 55 

their joint influence felt to change injurious 
methods, to do justice toward employees, to 
alter a selfish attitude to a friendly one. The 
men of the Golden Rule in a labor union will 
unite to require the use of only righteous 
means to right their wrongs. They will in- 
sist that employers and capitalists are also 
men like themselves. There will be new or- 
ganizations directly governed by the Golden 
Rule. If the competition of the reckless 
grinds downwards, if the land laws that fitted 
a pioneer age cease to fit our crowded popu- 
lation and make worse inequalities, if wealth 
concentrated in a few hands means degrada- 
tion of the people, the Golden Rule will not 
only bind individuals to protest against the 
evil, but to band themselves together and to 
discover means to change the evil to good. 

It must be remembered that there is no 

binding power in organization so great as the 

Golden Rule. While selfishness 

The binding ...... ,. 

power of With its jcalousies Splits men 

friendliness. _ . ... 

apart, friendliness unites them. 
A few men bound with this kind of tie, 
like the Macedonian phalanx, will work won- 
ders. All the great reforms are a witness of 
the superb power of the devoted few. The 
success of the Golden Rule in organization 



56 The Golden Rule in Business. 

on a large scale has not yet even been tried. 
Moreover, the characteristic method of the 
Golden Rule is profound, subtle, and marvel- 
ously effective. It does not fight 
lY^I^^^''^ evil with evil, hatred with hatred, 
wrong by doing an opposite 
wrong. It fights evil with good, by persua- 
sion, by fairness, by good temper, by expect- 
ing the best of men instead of their worst. 
As in the story of the traveler's cloak, it does 
not, like the north wind, drive the man to 
fold himself more closely about, but it acts 
like the genial sun to make him take off the 
cloak of his selfishness. This method is yet 
quite new in the world. But those who have 
experimented and watched its working look 
for developments in it as great and rapid as we 
already have seen in the material world by the 
application of the new powers of steam and 
electricity. 

We rise to a better conception of the 
meaning and office of the church. Grant 
that the true church is made up of 
JAhS^churchf "^^^ ^'^^ women who unite to ex- 
press **the faith of Jesus Christ." 
And what is the faith of Jesus ? Jesus' faith 
surely was, that this is not the devil's world, 
not a material world, not an agnostic 



The Golden Rule in Organization. 57 

world of which man can know nothing, but 
it is God's world. Jesus' faith was in the 
Golden Rule, that it would work, that 
whoever would trust it the Eternal Love 
would support. Jesus sealed this intensely- 
practical faith with his life and his death. 
Those who looked on cried out, * ' We told 
you so. The Golden Rule is brought to 
naught." On the contrary, Jesus' death 
proved to usher in the dawn of a new era 
of human progress. We have henceforward 
the key to understand history. All history 
is the constant march of the forces that bring 
the Golden Rule to triumph, the defeat of 
every short-lived scheme, policy, industrial 
system, or political government that thwarts 
the growing good of man. 

Whatever significance the church has had 
in the past has been in the fact that under- 
neath its gigantic establishments 
has been hidden the vital germ •[ has bee? ^^ 
of this spirit of brotherhood. But ^^ttmuSb? 
hitherto the good spirit has been 
mainly in the hearts of individuals. The or- 
ganization has rarely expressed the Christian 
spirit, but it has expressed almost everything 
else, men's ambition, their avarice, their 
superstitions, their speculations. The church 



58 The Golden Rule in Business. 

has never tried to see what it could do as an 
organized effort to bring the Golden Rule 
into effect, to spread its sway, to persuade 
men to adopt it. 

To-day the world is getting ready to judge 
the church by this test and no other. Does 
the church make men friends? 
^obiTtes"!* Do the men and women of the 
church conduct their business, 
their farms, shops, railroads, and factories in 
the spirit of friendliness, that is, in the spirit 
of Christ ? Do they bring up their children 
to take the Golden Rule as the law of their 
lives ? Is this the end of their Sunday-school 
training, and is that Sunday-school alone 
thought to be a success which commits its 
youth to the brave and noble ventures of the 
Golden Rule? In short, does the church 
head the organized forward movement of 
mankind toward a Christian civilization ? 

How can we believe in God unless we keep 
the chief law of his kingdom ? The Great 
Engineer shows us the plan of the 
b^ a^ChriltSn. bridge that binds earth and heaven 
together. He lays down the law 
of the bridge. He trusts the weight of his 
life to it. Shall we dare to call ourselves 
Christians and not do the same ? 



QUESTIONS. 

What parables of Jesus show what he thought 
of those who held the theory of the good life with- 
out the practice? Matt. 21:28-32; 25:31-46; Mark 
4:3-8, 15-20. 

Can any one evade the laws of the universe in 
chemistry, in farming, in building ? Give illustra- 
tions. Of what is the outward universe a grand 
parable ? 

Do you believe that the Golden Rule is binding 
on all men ? Do you think that any one can afford 
to break it ? Show how to deny this is to doubt 
that this is God's world. 



Where do you first find the Golden Rule ? Lev. 
19:18. Where does Jesus lay it down? Matt. 
7:12 ; 22:39. What did Jesus do with this rule, 
besides teaching it ? 

What, besides obedience, does one need in or- 
der to keep the Golden Rule ? Illustrate the need 
of judgment, etc. Show the same need in keep- 
ing other laws, as for instance, in building. 

What difficult passages can you find in the Ser- 
mon on the Mount ? How do men explain away 
Jesus' meaning? 

What is the great characteristic of the Christian 
life ? Answer. — It is a new spirit, or temper. Can 

59 



6o The Golden Rule in Business. 

you put this new spirit into one form of words ? 
How does Paul sum it up? i Cor. 13:13. Where 
do you find another beautiful form of the same 
thought? I John 4:7, 16, 21. What does Jesus 
teach about the action of love? Matt. 5:43-48. 
What does he here mean by being ** perfect"? 
Answer. — Men usually love those that love them ; 
but God loves and blesses all ; his children ought 
to love as he does, with an all-round love. Show 
how real friendliness sometimes treats the thief, 
the tramp, the child. What does true love always 
seek? 

II. 

Where do all men agree that the Golden Rule 
works well ? Illustrate how selfishness spoils the 
home life. Where do you find the great mottoes 
of the home? Matt. 20:28 ; Acts 20:35 ; Phil. 2:3. 

Who are those who are loved best in the home ? 
Who seem to get most enjoyment out of the home 
life ? Think of instances to prove your answer. 

Do you think that love ought to be blind ? Why 
not? What harm do you sometimes see from un- 
thinking love ? 

Did you ever know brothers or sisters to treat 
each other unkindly in business matters? What 
does the world say of such brothers ? Did you 
ever know happiness to come to any one from such 
treatment ? 

Did you ever know a real friend to take advan- 
tage of another? What is the rule for keeping 
one's friends ? 

What rule generally holds good among members 



Questions. 6i 

of lodges and brotherhoods ? What code of honor 
do you discover in the Stock Exchange ? 

What do men often say in complaint of their treat- 
ment by fellow Christians ? Is such complaint fair ? 
What is Jesus' teaching about the relation of Chris- 
tians to one another? John 13:35; 14:21. Can a 
Christian explain this teaching away ? What beau- 
tiful parable shows Jesus' idea of our common 
humanity? Luke 10:25-38. 

Of whom does " the real church " consist ? Give 
examples. Why do not individuals of this sort 
control the church ? Is the proportion of this sort 
increasing ? 

How far already does the Golden Rule have 
sway in the world ? In what regions of life can we 
not get on without it ? 

III. 

Is selfishness an evil thing within the animal 
world ? What mighty principle works to counter- 
act selfishness ? Tell any stories to illustrate the 
working of the cooperative idea. How does Jesus' 
life illustrate this idea ? Tell instances of persons 
whose pleasure was in serving others. 

What is your ideal of the noblest kind of min- 
ister ? Tell something of the story of John Wes- 
ley. Read Chaucer's description of the good 
priest in **The Canterbury Tales." 

Describe the best teacher of whom you know. 
What qualities make a good teacher ? 

Why ought a physician to be a man of the 
Golden Rule ? Is it to a physician's disadvantage 
to be this kind of man ? Give instances to illus- 
trate your answer. 



62 The Golden Rule in Business. 

Will artists or musicians succeed better for being 
selfish ? Name some of the great masters in art 
and literature. Where does their best strength 
come from ? 

What sort of mechanic or mason would you 
choose ? Other things being equal, why would a 
man of the Golden Rule be worth more than a 
selfish man ? 

Is it against the interest of a farmer to live by 
the Golden Rule ? How will the rule help him ? 

Give reasons to show how the keeping of the 
Golden Rule adds value to labor. Show the 
greater efficiency of a factory manned by genuine 
Christians. 

What type of woman would one choose as the 
most valuable housekeeper, domestic, or nurse? 
Give instances in your acquaintance of the invalu- 
able quality of the work of those women who live 
by the Golden Rule. 

Name the greatest men who have ever served 
our country. Does selfishness or patriotism make 
men great ? What kind of men do the people ad- 
mire most in public life ? Illustrate how ** the Be- 
atitudes " are true to the facts of life. 

Do the boys in their games really succeed who 
break the rules of the game ? What is true suc- 
cess in the game ? Do you think that men can 
break the rules of life and succeed ? Who awards 
success? Ps. 96 ; Is. 40: 26-31. 

IV. 

What complaints do men make of the present 
competitive system of trade ? If this system is 



Questions. 63 

contrary to the Golden Rule, what would a true 
man have to do ? 

What is the grand net result of most trade ? Are 
you most injured, or served, on the whole, in the 
bulk of your transactions ? 

Do you know persons who deal on the principles 
of the Golden Rule ? Is it a disadvantage, or an 
advantage, to be known as one who treats his cus- 
tomers with friendliness? Where ought a true 
man to trade — with the untrustworthy who tempt 
the public with "bargains," or with the honorable 
and friendly ? 

Do you believe that "all things work together 
for good " ? What tendency of this kind can you 
trace in the realm of business ? Do you think, if 
all men kept the Golden Rule, that the average 
buyer would get more than he gets now ? Would 
the average seller get more ? How much higher 
do you think the average wages would be ? What 
would be the chief gain in keeping the rule ? 

Show the distinction between brute competition 
and the emulation of men. Give instances of men 
and women who try to give the utmost service. 
Whom did Jesus call the greatest in the new sys- 
tem ? Luke 22:24-28. 

How can you translate the law of "supply and 
demand ' ' into beneficent terms ? What is the atti- 
tude of selfish men in a bargain ? What is the atti- 
tude of good men? Illustrate these different atti- 
tudes. 

There is cheap labor in the South, Is it wrong, 
or beneficent to start factories there ? What would 
you think if the factories made great profits, with- 
out raising the wages of their working people ? 



64 The Golden Rule in Business. 

Does the Golden Rule require any one to pay 
more than a thing is worth ? What would be the 
result if an employer should run his mill at a loss 
in order to pay high wages ? 

What great inequalities can you see in the pres- 
ent industrial system? What was said of such 
things in the Bible times? Is. 5:8; Amos 2:6; 
3:10 ; 4:1 ; James 5:1-5. What is the cure of such 
evils ? Can you think of any better industrial sys- 
tem than we have now ? If so, would it keep men 
from being selfish ? What would happen, with the 
present system, if men would keep the Golden 
Rule? 

V. 

Why are many not ready to begin to keep the 
Golden Rule ? Will the Golden Rule work when 
applied toward unfriendly people ? Do selfishness 
and greed work well when shown toward such 
people? What does Jesus say ? Matt. 5:44. 

What do you think of men's excuses for break- 
ing Jesus' rule ? Is honesty the best policy ? Is it 
well or not to treat all men with friendliness ? 

Is the best thing the cheapest ? What element 
of venture is to be found in life ? Show how this 
element makes life interesting. To what may we 
liken Jesus? 

Will the man who keeps the Golden Rule be 
likely to grow rich as fast as if he sometimes broke 
it? If not, why? 

Can you think of any kinds of business out of 
which the Golden Rule would drive a man ? Can 
you think of methods which a true man would 
have to stop ? 



Questions, 65 

What ought to be done with the higher salaries 
and the dividends in a mill, when the wages of the 
working people are cut down ? 

Name men whom the Golden Rule has required 
to risk unpopularity. What reforms to-day involve 
a venture for those who assist them ? What com- 
fortable word does Jesus say to those who take 
such risks? Matt. 5:10-11. 

What costly advantages have the blood and pains 
of the martyrs and heroes bought for our age ? 
Is any one in our age likely to starve for obeying 
the Golden Rule ? What was thought about this 
in ancient times ? Ps. 37:25. What loss do chil- 
dren suffer who are brought up by selfish parents ? 

What do you think of the passage in i Tim. 
4:8? Illustrate in answer. 

Suppose the keeping of the Golden Rule proves 
costly or dangerous ; what shall a man do about 
it? Luke 14:25-31. Do good men ever give a 
different answer ? What is the ** faith" of an en- 
gineer? What is the "faith" of religion? Give 
instances in memorable lives, for instance, Luther. 

VI. 

What do the thoughtless call success? What 
opposite fact have we discovered in the home? 
Where does Jesus put the emphasis ? Matt. 6:33. 
What shall we call the law of success ? 

How does selfishness hurt the health? How 
does the Golden Rule take away anxiety? To 
what office does Jesus liken a good man ? Luke 
12:42. What is the business of a steward or 
trustee? i Cor. 4:2. What beautiful figure is 



66 The Golden Rule in Business. 

found in Deut. 33:27 of the support that comes to 
the faithful sons of God ? 

Show wherein Jesus' life is an example of suc- 
cess. Note Matt. 13:44; John 14:27 ; 15:11 ; Gal. 
5:22. 

In what does full life consist ? Illustrate in the 
case of the body. Show how that man must suf- 
fer whose body and mind are active, but whose 
faith, hope, and love are not exercised. 

Tell instances of the men and women who have 
tried Jesus' rule and found it to work. What hap- 
pens to the moral and spiritual health when one 
breaks the law ? Show how the Golden Rule is 
the central fact of education. 

VII. 

Why must moral and religious work begin 
with the individual? Illustrate the complications 
of modern life. Is the individual always free to 
do right ? Is he equally free to correct wrongs ? 

In what direction does modern civilization move ? 
What good does cooperation do ? For what end 
are many combinations now organized ? 

How does selfishness work in organizations? 
What has to be mixed with selfishness in order to 
keep organizations together? How does public 
opinion act to overthrow dangerous combinations ? 

How is the spirit of chivalry and devotion shown 
in the trades unions ? 

Name organizations that are purely for carrying 
the Golden Rule into effect. Do you belong to 
any such associations ? Can a man be a Christian 
and not help in such kind of effort ? 

How can bad organizations be overcome? 



Questions. 67 

Which is the stronger, the union of the bad or 
that of the good ? Illustrate the power of the good 
when they combine. Tell the story of William 
Wilberforce and the abolition of the slave trade. 

What weaknesses does selfishness show in organ- 
ization ? Is anything in the world braver or more 
steadfast than love? See i Cor. 13:4-8. 

What is the characteristic method of the New 
Testament in fighting evil ? Rom. 12:21. Did you 
ever know this method, when intelligently tried, 
to fail ? Tell some story to illustrate the use of 
this method. 

How do Jesus' life and death illustrate his 
faith in the Golden Rule ? Which has proved to 
conquer — Pilate's and Herod's force, or Jesus' 
love ? 

What has been the great fault with the church in 
the past? What has it failed as a body to do? 
Do you think that Christians generally have be- 
lieved in the religion of the Golden Rule ? Matt. 
7:22-23. 

What is doubtless the true test of the reality of 
the church? Matt. 6:20. What is the test of the 
usefulness of the Sunday-school ? What new and 
nobler future do you see for the church ? 

What fine passage in Eph. 4: 4-17 sets the stand- 
ard of the good life ? 



